Jealous ex leaked sex tape to girlfriend’s father

A JEALOUS ex-boyfriend gave a sex tape to his girlfriend's family in a bid to blackmail her into continuing their relationship, a court has heard.

His actions had dire consequences - his victim was allegedly assaulted by her father to "restore family honour" and was forced to flee Adelaide after a threat to release the video to her Syrian community.

On Monday, District Court Judge Sophie David slammed the 19-year-old's actions after he pleaded guilty to blackmail and distributing an invasive image.

"The fact that he threatened to send it to the Syrian community, to my mind means he knows that it would have had a terrible impact upon the victim," she said.

"The Syrian community is known to have certain views on promiscuity and sex before marriage so in those circumstances, I consider that a very serious aspect of this offending.

"And as it turned out, resulted in injury to the victim."

The woman's father will face court next month.

District Court Judge Sophie David. Picture: Greg Higgs

The court was told the man, who The Advertiser has chosen not to name to protect the victim, felt betrayed when his girlfriend left him for another man.

He then sent an explicit image to her new boyfriend.

The teenager also saved an intimate video on to a USB drive and placed it in her letterbox with a note threatening to release it to the Syrian community in a bid to blackmail the victim - a former law student - into remaining in the relationship.

The court heard her little brother found and viewed the video before her father watched it.

In her victim impact statement read to the court by prosecutor Damian Cunningham, the victim said she "felt cheap and gross" by at being forced to remain in the relationship.

"(He) humiliated and betrayed me," she said in her statement.

"He revealed a personal, intimate side of our relationship to people I had no intention of ever displaying that side to - my own father.

"My relationship with my father is now irreparable.

"I'm hurt and embarrassed that my father witnessed a sexual side of me that no father is supposed to see of his daughter.

"My father was affected by (his) actions to the point he thought he had to restore family honour.

"He had every intention to ruin my life, to use his words.

"It was a disgusting, humiliating feeling to undergo the stress of being blackmailed to remain sexually interactive with a person I no longer wanted to be with.

"It made me feel cheap and gross.

"To have to choose between selling myself to ensure (he) would keep our private life private or experience the consequences of his actions, which are evident in a separate case involving my father and I, was the most distressing choice of my life.

"It was humiliating to have to remain in a relationship with someone you loathe in fear of the repercussions of the actions they threatened you with.

"To have to lie to the people closest to me about why I was still with (him) ... was traumatic and brought me to the edge of a mental breakdown."

Martin Anders, for the man, said the father was placed in the remand centre alongside his client and allegedly offered other prisoners money to "attack or even kill him".

He described his client's offending as "appalling", "dangerous" and "manipulative".

"He knew this was going to have a serious effect on her reputation," he said.